Ala. Retirement Home Tries a Second
Renovation to Rid Itself of Swastika Shape

By JAY REEVESThe Associated Press

DECATUR,
Alabama -- From the ground, the Wesley Acres Methodist
retirement home looks like any other building. But fly
over in an airplane, and the outline is unmistakable:
It's one big swastika.

Prompted by complaints from a Jewish activist, the
agency that owns the government-funded building is
planning to alter its shape to disguise the Nazi symbol.
The move comes just a few years after a $1 million design
modification meant to quiet similar complaints from a
U.S. senator.

"The difficulty is there are a limited number of
options for fixing a building that has been there for
some time," said Mike Giles, counsel for the
Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida.
"We have to come up with a way to fix an appearance that
we want solved and not hurt our residents."

Wesley Acres provides government-subsidized housing
for 117 low-income people ages 62 and above. Most have no
reason to suspect their hallways take on a sinister
shape.

The one-story building, designed in the mid-1970s and
completed in 1980, underwent a $1 million alteration in
2001 with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development following complaints by Democratic Sen.
Howell Heflin, who has since died. But the
addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive
shape, and in some ways accentuates it.

Options for the new renovations include the addition
of covered porches or other outdoor areas.

Segol calls the Alabama retirement home a "sister
swastika" to the building in California and says they
were both part of a tangled, government-funded conspiracy
to honor Nazis.

Segol claims the swastika shape of Wesley Acres in
Decatur pays homage to the German scientists who came to
nearby Huntsville after World War II and designed the
rockets that put Americans on the moon.

Methodist Homes' Giles said Segol's conspiracy claims
are ridiculous. The building was originally designed to
be much larger, he said, and cutbacks resulted in a shape
that resembled the four-armed swastika used as the symbol
of German Nazis during World War II.

"It was certainly not intentional," Giles said.

The shape of the retirement center is evident in
satellite photos available on the Internet. But it is
located in a residential section in a city with few tall
buildings, and many in Decatur have no idea Wesley Acres
resembles a swastika.

Giles said any changes to the building must be
relatively inexpensive since the agency lacks money for
an elaborate solution. Planners are considering
modifications, he said, "so that from the air it takes
your eye away from what was originally there."

A government retirement home in Alabama built in the
shape of a swastika

A government retirement home in
Alabama built in the shape of a swastika is to undergo a
renovation after a complaint from a Jewish activist
(Denis Farrell/AP)

DECATUR -- A government retirement home in Alabama
built in the shape of a swastika is to undergo a $600,000
(£295,000) renovation after a complaint
from a Jewish activist. The
Wesley Acres Methodist home, built in 1980, has already
had a $1 million makeover after earlier complaints, but
the addition of two new wings did little to disguise the
distinctive outline, clearly visible from the air.
Avrahaum Segol, an Israeli-American researcher,
claims that the building was part of a tangled,
government-funded conspiracy to pay homage to German
scientists who settled in nearby Huntsville after the
Second World War and designed the rockets that put
Americans on the moon. (AP)